Today we observe the feast of Our Lady of Guadalupe. She appeared to a man who saw himself as someone without importance, asking him to do something larger than his own self-worth. Isn’t that sometimes the story of our own lives? Haven’t there been moments where we’ve felt unworthy of something great, not smart enough for something complex, or lacking in strength for something challenging?

The yearning affection of Our Lady is embodied through the image left on Juan Diego’s tilma, or cape. This image endows a reminder that her Son is faith, hope, and love for all and in all, belonging to all people of skill, schooling, and skin color. And just as she asked a small and meek man from Mexico to prepare the way for the building of a church, so too La Virgen asks us to ready ourselves for the building of her Son’s Kingdom on earth.

—Damian Torres-Botello, S.J. is a Jesuit scholastic currently studying philosophy at Loyola University Chicago.